This image can successfully make and receive calls and text messages. It can read all contacts from the SIM card (which the updated 2007.2 does not appear to be able to do). It contains apps that appear to be more stable than the ones found in the 2007.2 image. It has multiple input methods that appear to be more mature. It does have a webkit based web browser and an GPS "Mapping Demo" application.

Preparing the SD card

See the Preparing the SD Card section of the Booting from SD page for partitioning and formatting instructions. After you complete the "Formatting the SD Card" steps, return here and execute the following:

Note: the last step removes the kernel image from the second partition. For some reason, U-Boot cannot find the uImage.bin file in the first partition if a kernel image exists in the second partition boot/ directory.

Installing Kernel

From your Linux box, rename uImage-2.6.24+git18+9c058ff0d2641df3c36fc3300acb72078d2c41d4-r0-om-gta02.bin to uImage.bin and copy it to the boot directory on the first partition of the MicroSD card. Depending on the version of U-Boot you have installed, this may not work. To prevent any possible issues, copy it to the /media/card directory as well. There is plenty of room on the first partition to have uImage.bin in both locations.

Prepare microSD card

Create an 8 MB partition for the kernel and use the remaining space for the root file system.

Insert microSD card into adapter, and plug adapter into Ubuntu computer. If any partitions on the microSD card mount automatically, unmount them.

CAUTION: Make sure you know which device your microSD card is. You don't want to perform these steps on your main hard disk!

sudo umount /dev/sdb1
sudo fdisk /dev/sdb

I assume you know how to use fdisk. Delete any existing partitions, then create two new partitions, the first of size +8M, the second using all remaining space. Set the file system type of the first partition to FAT16 (type '6'). Your partition table should look like this:

Copy the kernel image to the microSD card

Depending on your version of U-Boot, the kernel image might be expected at the root of the boot partition, or in the /boot directory. Also, the image file name might be expected to have a .bin extension, or not. We create all four variations:

Note: There was a report that some versions of U-Boot cannot find the kernel image file in the first partition if a kernel image exists in the second partition boot/ directory. I have not confirmed this but there is no need for it so it seems safest to delete it now:

sudo rm -f /media/rootfs/boot/*
<pre>
Wait for data to be written to the microSD card and unmount the second partition:
<pre>
sync
umount /dev/sdb2

Test Qtopia

Remove the microSD card from the USB adapter, install it in the Neo FreeRunner, boot into uBoot, and select the option to boot from microSD card.

Option 3: updating from source

NOTE: This will upgrade only opt/Qtopia directory, you should use opkg update/upgrade for the rest

Original Qtopia images (the distribution released by Trolltech, not ASU) are rarely released as a rootfs image, but the source code is often updated. If you want to reflash your OM with the latest version of Qtopia you might build it from sources. This has been explained in this thread of the community mailing list. Summing up:

Booting into Qtopia

Then while still pressing the Power button, press and hold AUX button for 5 to 8 seconds.

A boot menu will appear.

Press the AUX button to select "Boot from MicroSD" and then press the Power button to execute.

Qtopia should now boot.

Note: you may get a kernel panic which says that "optional features not supported". If this is the case, boot back into 2007.2 and run

umount /dev/mmcblk0p2
fsck.ext3.e2fsprogs /dev/mmcblk0p2

This will clean up the file system and clear recovery flags in ext3 that ext2 does not support, then try booting from the MicroSD again.

Internationalization

Qtopia comes with support for German and American English, and users from other countries will find that Qtopia's predictive keyboard makes writing in another language near impossible. One way to disable the predictive keyboard is to simply replace /opt/Qtopia/etc/dict/en_US/common.dawg and words.dawg with empty files (after backing them up). Qtopia normally looks in these files for words to suggest, and if it doesn't find any words that fit, it simply shows what you actually wrote.

Adding characters to the keyboard requires modifications to the source code, as described here.

Suspend /Resume

It seems that suspend/resume only works when the FreeRunner has been connected to a powersource (only a few seconds if sufficient). If you boot from battery, it will never suspend until you have plugged it in at least for a couple of seconds.

This image can successfully make and receive calls and text messages. It can read all contacts from the SIM card (which the updated 2007.2 does not appear to be able to do). It contains apps that appear to be more stable than the ones found in the 2007.2 image. It has multiple input methods that appear to be more mature. It does have a webkit based web browser and an GPS "Mapping Demo" application.

Preparing the SD card

See the Preparing the SD Card section of the Booting from SD page for partitioning and formatting instructions. After you complete the "Formatting the SD Card" steps, return here and execute the following:

Note: the last step removes the kernel image from the second partition. For some reason, U-Boot cannot find the uImage.bin file in the first partition if a kernel image exists in the second partition boot/ directory.

Installing Kernel

From your Linux box, rename uImage-2.6.24+git18+9c058ff0d2641df3c36fc3300acb72078d2c41d4-r0-om-gta02.bin to uImage.bin and copy it to the boot directory on the first partition of the MicroSD card. Depending on the version of U-Boot you have installed, this may not work. To prevent any possible issues, copy it to the /media/card directory as well. There is plenty of room on the first partition to have uImage.bin in both locations.

Prepare microSD card

Create an 8 MB partition for the kernel and use the remaining space for the root file system.

Insert microSD card into adapter, and plug adapter into Ubuntu computer. If any partitions on the microSD card mount automatically, unmount them.

CAUTION: Make sure you know which device your microSD card is. You don't want to perform these steps on your main hard disk!

sudo umount /dev/sdb1
sudo fdisk /dev/sdb

I assume you know how to use fdisk. Delete any existing partitions, then create two new partitions, the first of size +8M, the second using all remaining space. Set the file system type of the first partition to FAT16 (type '6'). Your partition table should look like this:

Copy the kernel image to the microSD card

Depending on your version of U-Boot, the kernel image might be expected at the root of the boot partition, or in the /boot directory. Also, the image file name might be expected to have a .bin extension, or not. We create all four variations:

Note: There was a report that some versions of U-Boot cannot find the kernel image file in the first partition if a kernel image exists in the second partition boot/ directory. I have not confirmed this but there is no need for it so it seems safest to delete it now:

sudo rm -f /media/rootfs/boot/*
<pre>
Wait for data to be written to the microSD card and unmount the second partition:
<pre>
sync
umount /dev/sdb2

Test Qtopia

Remove the microSD card from the USB adapter, install it in the Neo FreeRunner, boot into uBoot, and select the option to boot from microSD card.

Option 3: updating from source

NOTE: This will upgrade only opt/Qtopia directory, you should use opkg update/upgrade for the rest

Original Qtopia images (the distribution released by Trolltech, not ASU) are rarely released as a rootfs image, but the source code is often updated. If you want to reflash your OM with the latest version of Qtopia you might build it from sources. This has been explained in this thread of the community mailing list. Summing up:

Booting into Qtopia

Then while still pressing the Power button, press and hold AUX button for 5 to 8 seconds.

A boot menu will appear.

Press the AUX button to select "Boot from MicroSD" and then press the Power button to execute.

Qtopia should now boot.

Note: you may get a kernel panic which says that "optional features not supported". If this is the case, boot back into 2007.2 and run

umount /dev/mmcblk0p2
fsck.ext3.e2fsprogs /dev/mmcblk0p2

This will clean up the file system and clear recovery flags in ext3 that ext2 does not support, then try booting from the MicroSD again.

Internationalization

Qtopia comes with support for German and American English, and users from other countries will find that Qtopia's predictive keyboard makes writing in another language near impossible. One way to disable the predictive keyboard is to simply replace /opt/Qtopia/etc/dict/en_US/common.dawg and words.dawg with empty files (after backing them up). Qtopia normally looks in these files for words to suggest, and if it doesn't find any words that fit, it simply shows what you actually wrote.

Adding characters to the keyboard requires modifications to the source code, as described here.

Suspend /Resume

It seems that suspend/resume only works when the FreeRunner has been connected to a powersource (only a few seconds if sufficient). If you boot from battery, it will never suspend until you have plugged it in at least for a couple of seconds.